1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to redeemable coupons, and more particularly to a system for generating electronic redeemable coupons. Coupon-related data is encoded in a television signal transmission and decoded in a home unit for later redemption by the user.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The use of redeemable coupons is very old. For decades advertisers have issued or published printed coupons which can be taken to a redemption center, such as a retail store, and redeemed for some value or as a discount toward the purchase of some item. While this method has proven to be effective, there are many disadvantages to the process for the user, for the redemption center or retail store, as well as for the advertisers themselves.
The problems associated with clipping coupons by a user are manifold. First, a user must purchase or otherwise obtain a publication and search through such publication for coupons which would be meaningful or useful to the user. The user then must cut out such coupons, being of various physical sizes, leaving a pile of scrap paper and holes in the pages of the publication. Some advertisers use handouts or flyers which make the searching job easier, but there is still the problem of cutting out the coupons which is annoying and a waste of valuable time. Being of different sizes and pertaining to different types of products, the user must separate the coupons into product categories and band the coupons together as best as he or she can. The user then stuffs these sorted coupons into a pocket or purse and is off to the market. Upon arrival at a particular retail outlet at which at least some of the coupons are redeemable, the user usually fumbles through the groups of coupons and attempts to find the products in the store, and if they are not familiar with the layout of the store, this could again constitute a gross misuse of valuable time. Furthermore, since each store lays out their products differently, in order to redeem some coupons, the user may find it necessary to search out the desirable item in a number of stores. Finally, upon gathering the product into the pushcart, the user has yet another manipulation to make, i.e. he or she must select the coupons for which the products have been purchased from a number of coupons the user brought to the store initially.
This then leads to the next problem associated with coupon redemption, in that the store clerk must sort through the coupons, ensuring that they relate to the products being purchased and that the expiration dates are appropriate, and then enter the discount information in the computer (modernly, by a bar code scanner). This part of the redemption process takes valuable time away from the checkout clerk and irritates other people waiting in the checkout line. After the customer leaves, the retail store is still not relieved from further expenditure of valuable employee time, since the accumulated coupons in the retail store must now be sorted by manufacturer, tallied on a score sheet or in a computer or submitted to a brokerage house, and sent off to the manufacturer for retail store reimbursement.
Insofar as the manufacturer of the product is concerned, while there is direct evidence that people are reading their ads and using coupons, and although the number of coupons coming back to the manufacturer indicates some level of success in advertising, there is very little additional marketing information that can be derived from this type of coupon redemption scheme. Furthermore, any information the manufacturer does obtain is old information, the total processing of a coupon from publication to reimbursement to the retail stores taking perhaps several weeks. Additionally, the manufacturer has no information whatsoever about the nature of the customer, their age, sex, occupation, family environment, place of residence, or other information which would be of great value to the manufacturer in planning future advertising programs. Since each coupon is submitted anonymously, the manufacturer has no idea of how to reach that person again for arousing interest in related products. While some demographic information can be obtained by noting the geographical regions in which the coupons were redeemed, the lack of any specific information as to the nature of the purchaser leads many manufacturers to conduct separate marketing surveys which are extremely costly and time consuming. Some manufacturers are known to have spent millions of dollars to gather such information.
The television industry, contrasted to the printed media industry, is unable to offer its viewers (potential customers) any coupons which can be taken to the retail store for redemption. The best that an advertiser can do in television is to simply make the public aware of a sale on a particular item or line of items produced by a certain manufacturer. In some instances, telephone numbers and/or addresses are given to the viewing public, and if the viewer wishes to use up a lot of valuable time, he or she can make the telephone call and/or write the letter to gain access to additional information and perhaps coupons which can be redeemed for products or discounts on products. Again, however, the general public is generally not willing to make the extra effort to jot down a telephone number and make a call which likely would end up in a "sales job" from the person at the other end of the line, and would, to an even greater extent, resist the suggestion to write a letter to the manufacturer for product and discount pricing information, assuming that a pencil and paper is ,always at hand and that the name and address to which the viewer is to write is presented on the screen long enough to copy it down.
It can therefore be appreciated that there are many problems associated with existing coupon redemption programs, and the drawbacks of these systems are numerous and disliked by all three entities involved, the consumer, the redemption center (retail outlet store), and the manufacturer. There is therefore a great need for a redeemable coupon system which would: (1) significantly decrease the amount of time and effort a consumer expends in locating, clipping, and assembling the coupons; (2) give the consumer guidance at the redemption center as to the availability of the product to which the coupon pertains and the location in the store of that product; (3) enable the redemption center to more quickly and automatically credit the coupon amounts against the products being purchased and reduce the time and effort in organizing and reporting the coupons which have been redeemed; (4) enable the manufacturer to get quick results in the amount of usage of the coupons, the demographics of usage, and detailed information about the consumer including name, address, interests, and other data which would permit the manufacturer to access the value of the coupon distributing effort and to make and/or modify future plans for additional advertising or sale; and (5) establish firm controls over excessive or non-intended use of coupons. The present invention fulfills these various needs.